House Republicans are planning to hold leadership elections on Nov. 14 — a week after the midterms — regardless of which party is able to grasp or maintain the majority in the House, three Republicans familiar with plans told Politico.
Republican lawmakers are reportedly uncertain about their chances of holding the majority, but House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is gunning to replace Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as speaker and most of his colleagues think he has the votes to be minority leader if Republicans fall short next week. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) is eyeing the top job should McCarthy fail and is expected to be whip in the minority or majority depending on midterm outcomes.
Freedom Caucus founder Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is also expected to throw his hat in the race for speaker or minority leader, but, per Politico, “has little chance of winning.”
If, after losing the House, the Republicans want to start their circular firing squad early, then I’m all for it.
Good Lord! House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was instantly proven to be too stupid to be Speaker the last time there was a vacancy, but in the Age of Trump he thinks, “Oh what the hell, why not?”
McCarthy retains his “dropped on my head as a baby” speaking and thinking style so popular with Right Wingers. His nomination for Speaker will bring up his famous quote about certain GOP caucus members being “on the Russian payroll” which will not be helpful! By all means, let’s get him on the mic and hear his disordered word salad-ese again!
Specifically Rohrabacher of Southern CA who’s in a very tight race and his pro-Russia views may sink him.
But if McCarthy is elected Speaker he’ll only get to hold the gavel for approximately 18 days because that’s how long the House will be in session between the midterms election November 6 and January 1 when Dems come in to rearrange the furniture. So as Eric Holder might have said, good luck with the asparagus.
We should have a talk about Kevin. He has done practically no legislating in his 6 terms aside from renaming the Bakersfield post office to Buck Owens post office. He has, however, drifted gradually into the seamier parts of Managed Democracy. This has made him careless. As speaker, his lazy career highlights will likely doom him. In particular, it would bring unwanted scrutiny down on the defense budget, the last great gusher of discretionary spending.
Next, on Lord of the Flies…